Reina is my eleven-year-old Sealpoint Siamese. She's the mother of Moquito, aka "Mo", the nine-year-old Siamese, who is also the son of Chico, my other eleven-year-old Siamese. When I lived in California and barely could pay the bills, I bred Chico and Reina and sold off the kittens. That feline prostitution helped me and the kids get by.
As soon as I had my Ford Ranger Pick-up paid off, I had Chico neutered. I left Reina intact. Since neither cat ever went outside then, it was no big deal to leave Reina unspayed, but now that we live in Arizona and have a house, the cats do go outside from time to time.
Reina didn't get pregnant for the eight years after Mo's birth.
The first year here Reina never went outside. She stayed indoors and hid in the bedroom, or slept on the couch and looked outside through the front windows. When I was in Iraq apparently she got used to going outside and even got pregnant once. She bore one black kitten that died a few days later.
She was in heat in early April and somehow managed to get outside for one night. I found her sleeping under the firethorn shrub that's just outside the front door, a plant that all three cats seem to enjoy napping under as it provides safety from roaming wildlife like coyotes.
This morning Reina kept insisting on sleeping on my lap. She's been very affectionate this past month and sleeps near my face most nights, sometimes to my annoyance.
I felt her belly today and noticed that her teats were swollen. If she is pregnant she is half way through her gestation as a cat's pregnancy lasts 62 days. She is not a very big cat but her belly seems larger than normal.
I'm not sure we need more cats around here, but Reina is a good mom and seems to enjoy being around kittens. She's always gotten along great with any kitten I've brought home since arriving in Arizona. Unfortunately all those kittens somehow have "disappeared" in the last few years, falling victim to coyotoes, owls, snakes and what not. I try to keep the cats inside but they still manage to dart outside when the back porch door is open for the dogs, when we open the garage or front door, or whatever. It's hurt me everytime to lose any of my cats, as they are just as special as my dogs.
Reina is rather old to still get pregnant and I was always afraid to get her spayed because she's such a fragile small cat. She's more skinny than she is fat, and is easily half the size of the much bigger boys she shares her foodbowl with.
How old are cats when they reach menopause?
I saw a rather large tomcat stroll through the front yard early last month. Could he be the father of Reina's kittens? I guess we will see. I told Kevin about the possibility that Reina could be pregnant and he, naturally, wasn't too pleased. (He's also the one who lets the cats outside most nights because he just assumes they'll be back in the morning.)
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